Discussion Post: Week 1

Once again, welcome to the COM 315 course blog! I’m looking forward to chatting about various subjects with you over the duration of the semester. As I mentioned in class, while I do run another blog with content that may, at times, overlap with this one, my goal here is to tailor this version to your particular interests and the needs of our class. (You’re free to engage the other blog as well, if you’d like, of course.)

How is your preparation for Presentation I going? From the topics I’ve seen thus far, we can expect a unique array of presentations. If you haven’t already done so, please remember to submit your topic no later than the start of class this Thursday. I’m excited to see the rest of them!

We’ll start this week by considering the tumultuous tale of Lance Armstrong, who won an unprecedented seven consecutive Tour de France titles from 1999-2005 after recovering from testicular cancer. As I previously noted, Armstrong’s miraculous feat drew heavy scrutiny from the start, even though he reportedly underwent hundreds of blood and urine tests during his cycling career and never had a single positive test result. This year, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) launched a fresh wave of doping allegations against Armstrong, based largely on testimony from other cyclists — who themselves had positive test results — that they had seen Armstrong use the blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) as well as steroids, and that he also trafficked and administered the same performance-enhancers to others. The USADA claimed to have over a dozen witnesses ready to testify against Armstrong in arbitration, although the USADA never officially revealed their identities, claiming that Armstrong had previously engaged in witness intimidation.